Little Bits of Music – Playing Scales 5

Here is the A Minor Scale

This series of tips is about scales and how useful they are for the kalimba player.

 We have already learned that different scales can be made by playing eight tonally consecutive notes on the kalimba, zigzagging our way back and forth over the instrument.

We have played the D minor scale, made by starting on D, and going to E, F, G, A, B, C, and ending on D.

We can get a slightly different minor scale by doing the same procedure, but starting on A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A.

(By the way, the tablature here is for a 17-Note Kalimba in C, but the concept and even the tablature is the same for many other types of kalimbas.)

The A minor scale is – let’s say, the proper minor mode for a C kalimba. In music theory, it is called the natural minor scale.

I actually spend more of my time playing kalimba in minor keys than in major keys. What a remarkable finding, when you realize your kalimba plays equally well in major or minor, and many shades in between!